Leaping figure toy



Feb. 26, 1952 J. P. GOWLAND LEAPING FIGURE TOY Filed April 5, 1948Inventor John P Gawla'nfl 9/8214 IM F Patented Feb. 26, 1952 UNITEDSTATES OFFICE Application April 5, 1948;. Serial-No. 19,042=InGreatBritain April:.8, ..194 71 Cl ims;- (01. 4 mm This inventionprovides a toy or amusement device comprising a toy figure constructedwith a body which is articulated to supporting means such as a legstructure and is normally held by spring or like means in a. raised orerect position with respect to its supporting means; and which ismovable pivotally with respect to the supporting means against theaction of the spring orlike means into a lowered position from which itis returnable to its normal raised position under the action of thespring or like means by the releasing, of means provided for holding itin the lowered position. The device may be constructed to permit orcause the figure to resume its normal position with an abrupt action.

A sound-producing device, e. g., of the reed type operated by a bellows,may be provided in the figure and arranged to be operated to emit soundupon movement of the body, for instance, as-it resumes its normalposition A manual control device may be provided for actuating thefigure, e. g., at a distance, andsuch device may be arranged forcontrolling both the lowering and raising movements of the figure. Thefigure may be mounted on wheels or be otherwise adapted to be hauled orpushed along the ground or some other supporting surface, and may beprovided with a lead or handle: for hauling or pushing it and also witha control member such as a rod, wire, cord or the like, which extendsfrom the. lead or handle and is attached to the actuating mechanism ofthe. figure. Such a lead may comprise a Bowden. cable or similar devicehaving; a sheath which is attachedto the toy for hauling it and withinwhich extends a control wire, cord or like member. for controlling thearticulating movement of the figure An embodiment of the invention isillustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 shows inperspective a mock animal fig.- ure representing a dog in a normalposition standing on its feet;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal half-sectionof the fig.- ure in the standingposition;

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 but showing.

the figure in a sitting position;

Fig. 4 is a cross-section on the line 4..4 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary longitudinal section showing a modification.

In the illustrated embodiment,.the' quadrup ed.-

mock animal figure has a body I0 to which is ate tached a e a ead H. til 4 and less It.

h latter. bein fi t d i h Wheels. o ro ler Mi These a ts of e fi uremaybe QQWPQS-fifl st any suitable material, such as a plastic. The body,head and legs are shown as being made as hollow mouldings. the body Itand the head ll being each formed of a mating pair of shell halfsections(those of the body being seen at c, Nib in Fig. 4) which are united inany convenient manner, for example, by means of adhesive, thehalt-sections being preferably formed with complementary pips andrecesses in their mating faces to locate the halfesections in registrywhen assembling and uniting them together. The four legs 13 are pivotedto the body l0 in any convenient manner such as by a pin l6 (Fig 4) oneach leg pivoting in a socket I! in the body, and the pair of forelegsare tied together by a crossbar l8 arranged at a convenient positionbelow and to the rear of. the pivot axis 16 of the forelegs, the pair ofhind legs being similarly tied by a similarly positioned crossbar l9,and the two crossbars I8, 19 being tied together by a longitudinalbar 20housed in the hollow body H3 and having curved. ends 20a, 206 whichproject through apertures lilo, llld at the underside of the body I!) toreach the cross bars l3 and 19. 'A tension. spring 2! housed in the bodyID is anchored at its rear end to a convenient anchorage such as an eye22 formedin the body, and the forward end of'the spring 21 is anchoredto the longitudinal bar 20, the spring'being under tension so that thepull it exerts on the tie bar structure l8, I9, 20' causes the four legsl3. normally to be urged rearwardly with respect to the body H), thelatter being formed with abutment stop means 4! limiting the relativerearward movementof the legs so that the latter are normally held in. astanding position in relation to the body, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

The head H has a stem portion 23 positioned in a socket 24 in the'neckportion 25 of the body II), this socket being. sufficiently largerthan'the stem 23 to permit pivotal movement of the head Ii ona crosspin28 mountedinthe neck portion 25. As shown, the head H has a pair ofmembers representing ears, one of which is'seen at 21, which are. freelypivoted to the head as at 28 so that these. ear members may swingrelatively to the headas the latter is pivotally moved up and down onits pin 26. The head II is operatively connected to the longitudinal bar20 by an attached flexible cord, wire or like member 29 extendingthrough the. body IO- between the bar 20-and an anchorage point30 on thehead above its-pivot pin 26, so thatthe weight of the head,whichliesforwardly of thepin 26, maintains the flex ble, member,- Zik tnt and? the: at er holdsthe head erect, as seen in Fig. 2. The member 29is, of course, also tensioned by the spring 2| acting through the bar20.

The tail I2 is attached to a cord, wire or like flexible member 3|, thetension of which is controlled by the bar 20. In one arrangement, asshown, the tail cord or the like 3| is attached directly to the bar 20so that in the normal position of the figure as seen in Fig. 2, themember 3| is relieved of tension and is slack, allowing the tail to hanin a position determined by the amount of slack in the cord. The tail l2may consist, as shown, of a flexible tubular member 32 (or a successionof bead elements) and rounded rigid end pieces 33 through which the cord3| is passed or threaded and attached at its outer end to the outer endelement 33 of the tail structure.

Attached to the front of the body I is a leash 34 consisting of an outerflexible sheath 35 within which extends an inner flexible control cord,wire or like member 36 which passes into the body l0 and is attached tothe longitudinal bar 2|). The outer end of the leash 34 is terminated bya suitable handle 3'5 attached to the sheath 35 and the correspondingend of the inner control member 36 is attached to a suitable element,shown as a ring 38, providing a fingerhold or trigger which may readilybe engaged and pulled by a finger of a hand gripping the handle 31. Sucha pull on the inner member 35 to overcome the opposite pull of thespring 2| will draw the longitudinal bar 20 forwardly, the movement ofwhich causes the legs l3 of the figure to move forwardly relatively toits body l0 so that the figure sinks and assumes a sitting position, asshown in Fig. 3. As also shown in Fig. 3, such forward movement of thebar 20 will also relieve the tension, due to the spring 2|, on theelement 29, thus allowing the head II to fall forwardly about its pivot26. Also, the forward movement of the bar 28 will pull the tail member3| and, if this member is made of a suitable length, this action willhave the effect of tautening and tensioning the member 3| to raise thetail |2 erect. Releasing the control member 36 allows the spring 2| tocome into play and restore the parts to the normal position shown inFig. 2, and if the control member 36 is released abruptly, themomentarily violent pull exerted by the spring 2| on the various partsof the figure would cause it to jump to its feet. If desired, the handle31 of the leash may be provided with some suitable catch (not shown) forreleasably locking the element 38 when pulled out, so that the figuremay be kept in the sitting position without the operator having tomaintain hold of the ring 38, or even of the leash at all.

It will be evident that the foregoing describes but one example of thevarious ways in which the head II and tail l2 may be connected to theactuating bar 20, and that the connection and actuation of the head andtail may be modified or varied as desired. For example, in amodification as shown in Fig. 5, in which corresponding parts to thoseshown in Fig. 2 are designated by the same reference numerals with thesuflix a, a reverse movement of the head H from that described in theforegoing may be arranged by substituting, for the flexible head controlmember 29 shown in Fig. 2, a rigid arm 39 attached to or formed as anextension of the longitudinal bar 20, this arm engaging against the stemportion 23a of the head Ila at a point below-the head pivot 26a, andbeing arranged so that in the normal position of the parts as shown inFig. 5, corresponding to the standing position of the figure, the headHa is in a lowered position, supported by the engagement of the arm 39and stem 23a. Thus, when the control member 36 is pulled to cause thefigure to sink to a sitting position in the manner described in theforegoing, the arm 39 moves forwardly with the bar 20, and causes thehead Ha to rise about its pivot 26.41.

In one'arrangement, for example, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, one end ofthe bellows 40 of such a sound-producing device may be fixed to the bodyI, the other end being attached to one of the movable parts of thefigure, e. g., to the stem 23 of the head H as shown, so that the deviceis actuated to emit sound upon movement of the movable part to which itis attached. The bellows may be arranged so that sound, simulating abark, is emitted when the control member 36 is released to cause thefigure to jump to its feet. For this purpose, the bellows may bearranged so as to be expanded when the figure is actuated to cause it toassume a sitting position as shown in Fig. 3, so that the bellows iscompressed and causes the production of the sound when the controlmember is released.

In analogous fashion any other toy legged figure such as a two-leggedfigure may be constructed with its body pivoted to its leg structure andwith spring or like means acting between the body and leg'structure soas to hold the figure normally in a standing position, and controlled bya manual control device or" the Bowden or similar type to eiiectrelative pivotal movement of the leg structure forwardly with respect tothe body, causing the figure to assume a sitting position, in which itmay be held by the control device until the latter is released, allowingthe figure to resume its standing position under the action of itsspring or like means.

I claim:

1. A toy representing a quadruped figure, said toy including a hollowbody, a pair of forelegs and a pair of hind legs pivoted to the body andmeans for operating said legs consisting of a bar, a, resilientconnector and sheath-and-core type flexible actuating means, said barbeing pivotally attached near one end to said forelegs and near theother end to said hind legs at points removed irom those at which thelegs are attached to the body, said bar being connected to one end ofsaid body by means of said resilient connector, the sheath of saidflexible actuating means being attached to said body with its coreextending through said body and attached to said bar, whereby outwarddisplacement of said core relative to said sheath will cause said bar tomove relatively to said body against the urge of said resilientconnector and thereby operate said legs.

2. A toy as claimed in claim 1 in which said body carries stop meanswith which said resilient connector cooperates to hold said legs in anormally erect position, and in which displacement of said core relativeto said sheath against the urge of said resilient connector causes saidlegs to pivot toward said body, so that upon sudden release of said coresaid resilient connector will urge said legs sharply to an erectposition to produce a jumping movement of the toy.

3. A toy as claimed in claim 2 in which each pair of legs is connectedtogether by a horizontal rod, in which said body has an aperturedunderside, and in which said bar extends longitudinally within the bodyand has two depending ends extending downwardly through said aperturedunderside, one end being attached to each of said horizontal rods.

JOHN PINKNEY-GOWLAND.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Number Name Date Ritchel June 26, 1883Phillips Aug. 27, 1889 Pressler Mar. 29, 1910 Coggon Feb. 3, 1931Schelle et a1 Oct. 27, 1931 Jolly July 2, 1940 FOREIGN PATENTS CountryDate France Sept. 20, 1927 Germany Apr. 25, 1919

